Thursday, April 15, 2010

The Feds finger Goldman director

Wall Street's most powerful firm is being drawn into the government's sprawling insider-trading investigation.

Prosecutors are examining whether a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. board member gave inside information about the Wall Street firm to Galleon hedge-fund founder Raj Rajaratnam during the height of the financial crisis, people close to the situation told The Wall Street Journal...

As part of that focus, the government is examining whether Rajat Gupta—a current Goldman director, former head of McKinsey & Co. and close associate of Mr. Rajaratnam's—shared inside information about Goldman, the people close to the situation say.

No criminal charges or other allegations have been filed against Mr. Gupta, nor is there any indication that investigators are looking at his own stock trading. A spokesman for Mr. Gupta said, "Mr. Gupta is unaware of any examination of any such issue and has done nothing wrong."